Castilla power station

The Castilla power station is a proposed 2,100 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station to be operated by MPX Energia SA. The plant was approved in Feb. 2011 by Chile’s environment regulator. It will reportedly cost $4.4 billion, and will be built on the Pacific Coast 700 kilometers (435 miles) north of Santiago, to feed into Chile’s central power grid. MPX is controlled by billionaire Eike Batista, who said Castilla will be the largest power station in Chile.

Background
In a media release MPX stated that "the power plant will be developed in 350 MW modules and the project also includes an independent water desalination plant capable of producing 740 liters per second. The option of supplying energy and water jointly will give MPX Castilla a competitive advantage, as regional mining companies often have difficulty acquiring the water supply needed for their operations."

The company states that power from the new power station will supply the Central Interconnected System ("SIC") "the most important electric system in the background image country. The region served by the SIC accounts for approximately 90% of Chile's GDP and 92% of its population. A competitive advantage of the power plant will be its integration with a dedicated, deep-water port that will help ensure an efficient coal supply at competitive costs. The port, an EBX Group Project, was granted an environmental license on December 23, 2010."

Public opposition
A November 2010 poll found that a large majority of the Chilean population - more than 77 percent - disapproved of the plant, and were willing to pay more for environmentally friendly energy, a figure that increases in the upper classes. The poll was conducted by the conservative Jaime Guzman Foundation and included interviews with 506 people across the country's Metropolitan Region.

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